What a day! It was interesting being at Sloan-Kettering. Their lobby is set up like an Asian meditation space complete with waterfall, flat metal cut-out sculpture on the wall, and boxed lattice walls. But all the while Who Wants to be a Millionaire with Meredith Vieira cascaded out of on indentation in the wall with substantially less calm than the waterfall. Damn, I knew we were still in America! But what really struck me was that everyone there who was a patient had cancer, just like me.
It was a sad but time-passing game to play “who has cancer” with every group we encountered. Some were easy like the old women without hair or in wheel chairs. Others were greeted by staff or acquaintances with a “how are you feeling” - total giveaway. Others still were easily caught because they were so old and so New York and so (there’s no easy way to say it because I am one of them) Jewish that you couldn’t help but overhear them rehashing their treatment plan over and over again like the guy who was lamenting to his wife “Whaat’s woyis then the Whipple Procedure? Tell me. Whaat’s woyis then the Whipple Procedure?” Not surprisingly, she couldn’t come up with anything worse to tell him. Some were more subtle like the woman with her 10-year-old daughter waiting for the elevator. Which one had it? I hoped it wasn’t the girl.
It was amazing to be in a place where everything revolved around cancer and the its defeat. And defeat it I will! The drugs I’m getting in my chemo treatments have only been used in clinical treatment for the last four years. They’re stronger and don’t have as many or as severe side effects as previous drugs. This is why I’ve been told that I may not lose any hair or even be nauseous. That is only a prediction though, I won’t truly know how my body will react until I actually get the treatments and even then, my responses may change over the course of the six months. And these drugs, as good as they are at what they are intended to do, also have side effects both short and long-term that we need to watch out for and be aware of.
I’m still digesting all of the new information I received from Dr. Saltz and his team. The bottom line is though that they agree with what is being done for me here in Poughkeepsie and that is fantastic news! My treatment plan is solid and we’re ready to continue to move ahead with it. The realized cancer is gone and all we can hope for now is that if there are any molecular-level cancer cells left that the chemo gets rid of them. Good luck to me.
Related posts:
So you can ubu? Ubu for you? Do you ubu? Partake of ubu will you? ubu ubu ubu, do you want to ubu. Wine is fine, liquor is quicker, but ubu is so schmubu.
We love you healer. Let your innate intelligence flow, and partake of an ubu.
nicolekencoleandtess
Comment by ken turner — 2008.08.27 @ 3:48 am
I liked this blog - agree that MSKCC is a strange place to be in that regard. I enjoy playing a similar game at my family reunions “which one is the convicted felon?”
I’m glad that LS agreed with the plan - I thought he had a very good bedside manner as well.
also, nice pun - “digesting’ the information - shame on you!
Comment by Cary — 2008.08.28 @ 12:07 pm